@Mr. Humphreys Hi Grace, I imagine you were also following this auction and if not, I'll leave you a couple of photos of this figure that you like. I think the price did not finish very high and I was even tempted to take it, but I thought the nose was very scraped and in some parts of the vinyl had many dirty pores, @ultrakaiju I know that maybe I'm over exaggerating or I'm being very strict with the conditions of the figure but not ended so cheap to pass up those details. Well I hope you enjoy the photos! Went for: 27,500 yen
^ ^ I got to throw it out there that this guy looks like he needs a good wash and aside from a minor paint rub on the nose would present very nicely
Also consider the possibility of painting the nose, but I feel that it would be altering in some way the figure. I think that giving a touch of paint to the nose would be something valid, but I do not know why I would not feel quite right.
@Alebrije , Hi Roger! Yes, I did see that auction. I would have tried for him! Not sure how I feel about the ending price. The figure doesn't have any squished limbs , but the poor kittee is quite "well worn". I share your concern, that the dirt looks to be embedded in the vinyl. It's a shame we can't see the Tiger cleaned up, as I'm very curious if a good scrub would remove what looks like stained-in dirt? The nose is often rubbed somewhat on these vintage kittees. Definitely nothing wrong with that! You can see this in some degree on some of my kittees... Personally, they stilll look wonderful, and show that they were loved. It's not the paint rub I find distracting, rather that rusty dirty look! The figure itself is still groovy. What's not to like about Tiger 7 p.s. the tigers versions here are orange head, yellow head, orange head. Still wondering why the yellow heads rarely pop up!
Great tigers Grace! I thought this might be of interest.. an old photo of my mini T7's comparing the colour variations.. The yellow vs orange tiger head thing also extends to tiger mask with similar variations, my feeling is it not really intentional but as long as the tigers had some colour on the head it was passed
Thank you very much for sharing the photo Grace and @scobot. Grace, what do you think is the reason why there are variations in the color of the head? That was something common in Latin America in the late 70's to mid 80's in lines like; MOTU, Star wars, Gi joes and Thundercats. For reasons of production sometimes they did not have the correct pantone of color and used the most similar. But I do not think that's the reason in Japan ...
I thought the variants of the mini tigers were from separate packages ones vs the set sold together, but I could be mistaken! More cats the better
@Alebrije , Super 7 has a great article in their Magazine, issue #9, which you can download here (thanks Brian!) http://www.super7hq.com/news/super7-magazine-volume-3-no1-tim-biskup Here are a couple of paragraphs from page 43: "....The highly beloved company Bullmark also produced 12" and 5" vinyl versions of Tiger 7 with orange and yellow-molded heads. While the gloves on the 12" figures were painted on, they also came with a separate pair of Tiger 7's "Fight Gloves." These bright red gloves were stapled to the backer card in the bag. But don't fear—even loose versions of the 12',’ sans the deadly gloves, look complete. Bullmark also issued four bagged 5" Mu Primordials (Crowned prince Gill, Black Mask, Kappa Primordial and Oil Primordial). All of the 5" figures were also released as a carded set, which is extremely rare to find today.These villains matched the aforementioned 5" Tiger 7, so children could enact fight scenes from the previous night's episode. For variation hunters, these villains can be found with two paint variations as well, although the differences are subtle much more subtle." According the article. Bullmark intentionally produced both an orange and yellow head version for standard and small sizes. For the 5-inch smaller guys, the orange and yellow seems to vary in color saturation, but two head colors are distinctly described. It's nice to see a wave of Tiger 7's hit the market lately. I'm sure more than a few of you were watching the GLOVED Tiger that ended this morning at 99000 JPY. Not too bad a price, considering he has both gloves, and is in decent shape with no graffiti. There were two beautfiul gloved tigers (no rubs or marks) that ended above 100000 JPY, last year. No, I did NOT adopt this tiger , as I am "trying" to hold to my limit of seven . Does anyone think that there is something going on with the right eye (the actual right side of the toy, or left side of the photo). I can't tell if it's a flash reflection or if the eye is dented inwardly? Any thoughts? Here is a close up of the head/eye
I dunno Gracie, that seems a bit high to me. Sure, ones have been commanding a high price in the past, but I wouldn't say he is perfect enough to approach the 100k mark. He does have some wear and paint rubs on him, and discolouration to at least one of the feet. Don't get me wrong, he is actually in incredible shape, and such a lovely feline, but for me [at least] spending that much money (as if I could!) would have to mean he would be near pristine; and I don't think this example fits that. And I do think the aforementioned eye 'flaw' is some kind of defect in paint or vinyl, that is not due to the flash, but I could be wrong. I wish I could have bid on that one that Roger posted. A really nice deal I think, and just the kind and look I'd love to have, even if he was a little loved and missing the gloves. I think that was a very good auction in contrast, but alas! one more time. Haha, Grace, I think you could handle Tiger7 variations from within your collection alone! (A fact to which many of us remain ever so jealous). Thanks for sharing the comparison pic of the 5" Tigers, Scott. I definitely think the paint variation was intentional, if not directly planned from the outset. You can also use as an analogue the similar range in yellow/orange Tiger Masks from Nakajima. I believe the really deep orange is the most unusual of the three. Each is wonderful though, and I really like how your versions Scott are so extreme in their contrast, really capturing the range of colour.
Stevie, thanks for your thoughts on that eye. I just wasn't sure if it was defective or not. If it is, then it's definitely too high a price. Actually, even if the eye was ok, you're right about the rubs and marks--still averages on the high side! And now for some geekiness... Here is the data (sorry Chris! ) The previous gloved Tigers were in better shape and lower in price, so you have a great memory Stevie! In fact, that last auction mentioned above, climbs nearly to the price level of a "gloved and bagged" tiger!
Grace, I am swooning over your graph and cataloguing skills; I just can't help myself. Toy OCD thoroughness after my own heart. I think it is best that this pattern only goes back to 2013, as the climb before that would probably be too painful to revisit in hindsight. It is also somewhat reassuring to see on two levels: (1) the pattern is more or less consistent I think, and (2) there are other tigers out there at somewhat normal periods, so I need not lose complete heart on my chase. Interesting that you only have the one 'yellow' head collected in this history so far. Not that the sample size is huge, but I hadn't expected that degree of discrepancy necessarily. I sort of think this last one was yellow as well, or at least more yellow; though the photos could be blanching a lot of colour too. Also worth noting, that one-armed fellow still has me scratching the ol' noggin.
I love the scientific approach and a graphic representation of prices (kudos Grace for all the work), but as a fellow scientist I crave more data points so I can obtain a median value (that has some weight) lol! Does anyone here know how to get a free trial membership for Auc Fan (to see end prices)? Or does anyone have a Auc Fan membership that can check the prices for these links below? It would fill in loads of prices for 2013, one more for 2014, and two more for 2015. I checked Auc Fan through 2012 so thats a 5 year trend (5/7/13 link has google translated page with free membership reveal price link) 3/10/13: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/170750361/ 4/29/13: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/n118439057/ 5/7/13: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/d141160360/&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=UTF-8 8/5/13: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/m111373158/ 12/25/13: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/e142108346/ 12/13/14: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/k184987539/ 8/6/15: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/w123408990/ 12/1/15: http://aucview.aucfan.com/yahoo/c535612934/
@Lixx - Here you go: 3/10/13 - ¥27,000 4/29/13 - ¥31,500 5/7/13 - ¥39,521 8/5/13 - ¥33,500 12/25/13 - ¥45,286 12/13/14 - ¥48,000 8/6/15 - ¥33,600 12/1/15 - ¥32,100
Thanks man- data point central here I come! Hey if you're feeling adventurous do you have exact prices for Graces auctions? I can sort of guess by looking at the graph but can't be exact. EDIT: Wait some of them are here in the back pages. Just need 3/2/14, 3/4/14, 3/22/14, and 4/12/14.
Interesting. So I filled in some guesses for those 4 auctions above based on graph position and took out the one armed auction that ended at 10200 (outlier) and came up with a median price of 59701 yen over the last 4 years. Not bad. I thought it would be higher. Now I have hope. And I'm an idiot for not bidding on that 27500 auction. I've been busy traveling so I have not been chained to the computer.
Hi Chris! Sorry I left out the data (it was late last night! ). I posted it below the graph! *My brain is in a tizzy this morning...
No worries. I was close with the numbers. Anyhow did some median calculations, so here's how it breaks down: 1) Yellow Head: Not enough data- just one for 16000 yen 2) Orange Head: 60063.58 yen average 3) Orange Head w/gloves: 67090.38 yen average 4) Orange Head w/gloves in bag: 122366.33 yen average Overall median (minus the one armed guy): 59776.45 yen So basically (condition dependant) over the last 4 years you're going to spend around 60000 yen, add 7000 more for gloves, and if you want the full package of a header card and plastic bag (lol!)- but the condition will be a lot nicer tack on another 62000 yen to your 60000 base price. These are just averages- so lets hope more like the 27500 show up! Still lower than I thought which is nice. And gloves don't seem to raise the price significantly (just the damn header card and bag lol). All this is really helpful I guess if you are bidding to know where they usually end up (and did you overpay or get a steal).
@Mr. Humphreys thank you Grace for all the information This was sold about three years ago for 33,600¥
all these Tiger pics and facts are awesome the large version has such a great eye sculpt,so much character.
^^^Yes, they are one of my favs! ^^^Roger, thanks for the "new" Tiger 7 pics and info. I'll add that to my graphing table!
